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A Major Celebration in San Diego Makes It the Californian City to Visit This Year

By Pauline Frommer

Posted on 02/19/2015, 3:00 PM

In 1909, San Diego was a little city with really big ambitions. It decided to throw a world’s fair in 1915 to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal, which would make it the first U.S. city reached by ships after making the passage. San Diego would be the smallest city ever to host such an international event. And it would do so over the strong objections of neighboring San Francisco, which ...

Some Reflections—Both Hopeful and Dismal—on the Current State of the Cruise Industry

By Arthur Frommer

Posted on 02/18/2015, 5:45 PM

On Quantum of the Seas In the cruise ship world, January, February, and March are "wave season", the period of their heaviest advance sales when phones are ringing off the hook in vast offices of telephone reservationists. And as you'd expect, this has been an unusually successful "wave season" to date. With winter temperatures at unprecedented lows, large numbers of American...

Recent Wholesale Cancellation of Flights to Coastal U.S. Cities Has Caused a Great Many Would-Be Vacationers to Lose the Cost of Their Cruise

By Arthur Frommer

Posted on 02/18/2015, 5:30 PM

It happened all over America. People who had booked a cruise went to the airport, only to learn that their flight to the embarkation city had been cancelled--and no alternative flight was listed. A week or so ago, in some of the most bitter winter weather conditions on record, air transportation to the cities where cruises depart had simply disappeared. What to do? There w...

Consumer Choice Shrinks: Expedia, Having Just Gobbled up Travelocity, Is About Buy Orbitz, Too

By Jason Cochran

Posted on 02/13/2015, 2:30 PM

As it is above, so it is below. Just as the airlines have been scooping each other up, swiftly reducing a field of 12 companies competing for American patronage to a field of only four, so have the online airfare bookers reduced themselves from a wealth of competition to a trio of giants. Last month, unnoticed by many, Expedia purchased Travelocity. For years, passengers looking for a che...

Companies Have Emerged that Claim to Double or Triple the Value of the Mileage or Points You Earn on Airline and Credit Card Programs

By Arthur Frommer

Posted on 02/12/2015, 9:45 AM

Its name is AwardMagic.com, and it's potentially the most useful travel service of which you've never heard. It is not alone in what it does--ThePointsGuy.com, FlyerTalk.com, and numerous others claim to accomplish the same substantial increase in the value of the travel you enjoy by earning frequent flyer mileage or credit card points. But AwardMagic.com was the company that firs...

Does the Recent Outbreak of Measles Mean that Enlightened Americans Should Cancel Travel Plans, and Thus Avoid Exposure to the Malady in Crowds?

By Arthur Frommer

Posted on 02/12/2015, 9:30 AM

When a traveler with measles paid a visit recently to Disneyland in southern California, he/she not only set off a rather small epidemic of the disease in the United States, but caused a great many Americans to cancel their vacation plans. In particular, some of our frightened fellow citizens felt that they ran a particular risk by going onto a crowded cruise ship, or into a bus wi...

Drop That Towel! Hotels Get Serious About Foiling Linen Thieves

By Pauline Frommer

Posted on 02/03/2015, 10:15 AM

Is hotel check out about to become a much more emberrassing ritual? It might if you're one of the 5 to 20 percent of hotel guests who steal towels, robes and other linens each month from hotels around the world. CNN is reporting that hotels in Miami, Chicago and New York City are the first customers of a new company called Linen Tracker that tags linens with waterproof, radio-transmitter chip...

Last-Minute Deals on Hotels Are Getting Better and Better! Here’s Why

By Pauline Frommer

Posted on 01/30/2015, 1:15 PM

Speak on a mobile phone instead of text? That’s considered a rude act nowadays in many circles. But while mobile technology has, arguably, made us less social, many in the travel industry say it has sparked spontaneity like nobody’s business. In just the last two years, a number of major travel companies have spent millions to launch app-only booking tools geared towards folks who have no idea ...

The Luck (And Deals) Of The Irish: A Head-Turning Fare Sale from Aer Lingus to Ireland and Beyond

By Pauline Frommer

Posted on 01/28/2015, 10:15 PM

Head across the pond for a quick, and inexpensive, pint of Guinness The euro is currently trading at a jaw-dropping $1.12. Just a few months ago, Americans paid $1.45 or more, meaning that those who head to Europe will experience a 30% savings on the ground. The problem has been how to get to the ground in Europe inexpensively. A...

A Major Airline Drops the Hated Fuel Surcharge! So Why Won't the Rest of the Industry Follow?

By Jason Cochran

Posted on 01/25/2015, 2:45 PM

One of the greatest lies foisted upon the American public—right up there with "this won't hurt a bit" and "New Coke will be better"—was crammed down travelers' throats a half decade ago. Fuel prices were rising. The airlines put out a tear-jerking sob story in the press, appealing to our better natures to help them survive. They told us that to stay alive, they had to start tacking extra cha...

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